On Friday, January 17th, President Obama signed the omnibus spending bill which contains a provision which prevents USDA from spending any money to inspect horse-slaughter plants ending horse slaughter in the United States until September 30.th If the budget is not passed at the end of this year, a continuing resolution will take place keeping defunding of inspectors intact.

Slaughter plants in the U.S. have been closed since 2007. In 2011, language for defunding inspectors was pulled paving the way for the opening of horse slaughter plants. Valley Meat in Roswell, NM was scheduled to have a hearing on the opening of their plant on Friday. Now any law suit by slaughter advocates is moot with the federal defunding of USDA inspectors.

The bipartisan agreement cleared the Senate on a 72-26 vote Thursday while the House voted 359-67 a day earlier.

To end slaughter completely, the SAFE ACT must be passed in Congress. Our update since our newsletter adds four more Representatives to the list of co-sponsors totaling 163 and 27 Senators. We still have a long way to go. We encourage you to write your Congress people to make sure that they support the Safeguard American Foods Export Act.

It is still very important to write a letter to your Congress people in support of this legislation and thank them if they have already signed onto the bill, you can call our office (605-964-6866) or go to the Library of Congress. This site will list all those who are supporting this bill. The numbers to check to see if your representative or senator signed on to the SAFE Act. S-541 HR 1094